Malawi gay man subjected to sickening homophobic attack 

Malawi Police have been called to investigate a possible hate crime in which a gay man was subjected to a sickening homophobic attack in the capital Lilongwe on Monday.

Photos posted on Facebook by human right activist Billy Mayaya shows Kelvin Gomani  who works at Crossroads Hotel was brutally attacked by unknown gang for being gay.

Gonani is indeed a renowned guy in Lilongwe who was arrested late last year for having homosexual sex.

Mayaya said police should investigate the attack and treat it as an anti-gay hate crime.

Recently, the UN  warned that Malawi needs to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)  people following comments from a political party spokesperson that gay people are “worse than dogs” and should be killed.

A spokesman for the People’s Party, Ken Msonda, made the comments on social media, and then later in a number of interviews.

Following the comments, Msonda was charged with inciting others to break the law.

This was after two civil rights organisations pressed charges against him over the remarks.

However, the Director of Public Prosecutions Mary Kachale instructed the Chief Magistrate’s Court to discontinue the case.

“It’s pretty alarming because essentially people will see that you can incite people to kill someone simply because they belong to a particular group,” the UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It’s broader really than simply awful discrimination and incitement to hatred of gay and lesbians, it undermines the role of law in general,” he said.

Gay sex is illegal in Malawi and is punishable with up to 14 years in prison, however, the  government has suspended the law, according to Justice Minister Samuel Tembenu pending a  review on whether or not homosexuality should be decriminalised.

Meanwhile, press reports also indicate that homosexuals are facing challenges when seeking medical attention in the country’s public health facilities.

Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) executive director Timothy Mtambo said his office is receiving an  increased number of homosexuals from all corners of the country coming to report and complain of all kinds of discrimination they face from medical personnel when seeking medical attention, especially after developing sexual reproductive complications or contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

“We have reports that instead of just treating them like any other patient, some medical personnel make fun of homosexuals, some refuse to treat them or ask them so many irrelevant questions. This is unacceptable and we condemn it in strongest terms,” Mtambo told a local paper.

Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) acting spokesperson and deputy hospital administrator Chikumbutso Tambala said the problem was that most homosexuals do things in secret, “a tendency that has led them into suffering in silence.”

Ministry of Health (MoH) spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said his office has not yet received any complaint regarding the matter.

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